BABY NAMES EXPLORER

• Thomas took a serious dip in the 1960's, but recovered 30 years later.

• David reached his peak in the 1960's. Nowadays he is not popular anymore.

• Benjamin is rapidly losing steam.

• Until the 1970's nobody knew of Chloe. Now she is the most popular.

• Charlotte follows right behind.

These are some interesting facts about the history of names in New South Wales, Australia. In the latest newsletter of the electronic newsletter for family historians from the Society of Australian Genealogists most interesting information is given about "100 years of baby names".

The editors writes: "Not strictly a genealogy website but nevertheless one that may be of interest to researchers. Produced by the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages and The Powerhouse Museum, the Baby Names Explorer site is an interactive site allowing you to browse through more than a century of the top 1200 baby names in NSW.

“Enter all or part of a name in the name field and the graph adjusts to show the pattern of name usage over time. For example, entering the name 'Barbara' shows that the name reached its peak in the 1940s and was the 7th most popular girls name at that time. This site is a fun way to see whether your family naming patterns were typical of the time.”

Above: The rise and fall of the name "Robert" in NSW. (Please note: you cannot enter a name above. Click on "Baby Names Explorer" above. It takes a while to load.)

Keep in mind that these statistics related to only one territory -- New South Wales -- in Australia.

• Interesting subject for someone to do research in South Africa. How many babies are still baptised these days as "Jacomina" or "Johanna" or "Jacobus"? When did "Mireille", "Zander" and "Edzard" occur for the first time?